Post your polyphasic sleep logs here

[David Hausladen]

Biphasic Sleep, Day 24 (Day 1 of Biphasic Exam Week)

Biphasic Exam Week: The last week of my biphasic sleep experiment, during which my goal is to consistently sleep from 2am to 5am and from 9am to 12am, and to then have enough energy during the day that I need no more than one 25-minute catnap. I call it Exam Week because it's when my body and subconscious mind get to show me all that they've learned during the past three and a half weeks. I think I'll even give it a grade at the end .

Exam Day 1 went very well. All the sleep periods happened on time and without interruption. I had one bout of tiredness in the early afternoon, which was easily gotten past with one 25-minute catnap.

1 day down, 6 to go!

[Jm4362]

I didn't have much luck on my first day of Polyphasic sleep. Read about it here:

Polyphasic Sleep Experiment

I just don't feel like retyping it all. Today's been going better, though.

But I did make the fatal mistake: assuming that being at home with no school means free time. My whole family jumped at the chance to put me to work. After all, I have a car, and I'm not doing anything else, right? I haven't actually told them about the experiment, because they'd try to talk me out of it. (Well, my brother might be cool with the idea.)

~Jm4362

[Ati]

OK, just please don't ask for any explanations--I don't have any

As you see, 7 days without any "proper" sleeping pattern as I call it. It's not really been a lack of discipline as a myriad of things to do, work wise, family wise, holiday wise, etc.

I'm leaving for a trip to visit my parents tomorrow early early dawn. lots of things to do before I go, and lots to do when I get back.

I, like you, Wanderer, felt that maybe I'd just hold off on this for the time being. Actually, taking an hour and half of daylight to sleep did not make sense .....

I did notice several things which I cannot explain...

1. I often would wake up at 3:45 am (my usual 4:30 waking time when I go to bed at 11:15pm and get up at 3:45 to play music before going to work), no matter when I'd gone to sleep. I most often this week just went back to sleep, having gone to sleep much later than 11.

2. On two separate occasions, I tried to start the process again with a 90 minute nap and couldn't fall asleep--unusual for me--no coffee or other stuff that should cause that.

3. It seems that monophasically, I like 7:30 hours, while biphasically, 6 hours is fine...per 24 that is.

Then yesterday, in anticipation of a heavy day's activity today (and here I am writing this , I decided late in the evening to go ahead and get a 90 minute nap in because I wanted to get up at 3:45, not for music, alas, but to get stuff done before my trip.

Although I didn't feel tired (that's not why the nap), I fell asleep, woke up with the alarm and realized I had been d-e-e-e-e-e-ply asleep on the couch in the living room. My husband concurred--I'd been sleeping really deeply. Then did a few things and to sleep at abt 1130. Then.....woke up spontaneously and ready to go at 3:41am !!!

So what's happening here?? I don't know. Somehow that nap, like the first one (Day 1), just kicked off the process again? And then what happens with time spent doing this? It seems that with time in, I got less and less "good at it". I'm not sure. It's good to have written a log to review. There could be a lot of things besides time doing this which affected my ability to do this.

So....tonight I may be up all or most of the night. I may try a few separate 90 minute naps, rather than a full 1:30 + 4:30 before heading for the airport in the morning, maybe just 2. In this case, that's just to get a few more hours in for stuff I have to do.

Will let you know.

Wanderer, if you feel like it, check back in. Maybe you'll have some insights for us, maybe you'll want to rev it up again. Anyway thanks, happy holidays and good luck!

David, good luck with you Exam! We'll be following along to see how you do. Seems to me life is an exam these days

Scott Bird, how are you doing anyway?

Jm4362, good luck and for all of us, life will be settling down soon enough. The holidays are fun. I'm just the observer with my own experimentation when there is so much else going on. Before long, it'll be up to me again.

All best,

Ati

Day 28 12/12 Tues Nap 830-10P//1:30 + 4:30 = 6:00hrs/4Cycles (!!!!)

Day 27 12/11 Mon NO Nap//7:30/7:30hrs/Cycles NO NAP
Day 26 12/10 Sun NO Nap//7:30/7:30hrs/5Cycles NO NAP
Day 25 12/9 Sat Nap 530-7 ST 1130//1:30 + 6hrs/7:30 hrs/5Cycles OVERSLEEP
Day 24 12/8 Fri Nap 645-815 ST 1145//1:30 + 6hrs/7:30hrs/5Cycles OVERSLEEP

Day 23 12/7 Thurs Nap 530-7P//1:30 + 5hrs/6:30hrs/3-plus-1/3 Cycles OVERSLEEP
Day 22 12/6 Wed NO NAP//7:30/7:30hrs/5Cycles NO NAP
Day 21 12/5 Tues Nap 530-7P//1:30 +7:30=8:30hrs/5Cycles OVERSLEEP

Day 20 12/4 Mon Nap 5-630P//1:30 + 4.30=6:00hrs/4Cycles

Day 19 12/3 Sun NO NAP//7:30hrs/5Cycles NO NAP

Day 18 12/2 Sat Nap 8-930P//1:30 + 4:30 =6:00hrs/4Cycles

Day 17 12/1 Fri Nap 8:30-10P//1:30+6:00=7:30hrs/5Cycles OVERSLEEP

Day 16 11/30 Thurs Nap 1:30 + 4:30 =6:00hrs/4Cycles
Day 15 11/29 Wed Nap 1:30 + 4:30 = 6:00hrs/4Cycles

Day 14 11/28 Tues Nap 630-8P//1:30+6=7.30hrs/5CyclesOVERSLEEP?ETIO?

Day 13 11/27 Mon Nap 6-730P//1:30+4:30=6:00hrs/4Cycles

Day 12 11/26 Sun XXX

Day 11 11/25 Sat Nap 12N-130P//1:30 + 4:30 = 6:00hrs/ 4Cycles

Day 10 11/24 Fri Nap 530-700P// 1:30 + 8:00hrs = 9:30hrs(!!!)/570m/
6Cycles+30m OVERSLEEP ??TURKEY???

Day 9 11/23 Thurs Nap 330-500P//1:30 + 4:30h = 6hrs /4Cycles

Day 8,7 11/22,21 Wed, Tues XXX
Days 6 11/20 Mon Nap 5-630P//1:30+6:00=7:30 hrs OVERSLEEP
Day 7 11/19 Sun NO NAP//0 + 4:45 hrs (3~+ cycles)NO NAP
Day 6 11/18 Sat NO NAP//0 + 6.5 hrs NO NAP/OVERSLEEP
Day 5 11/17 Fri Nap4-450P//:50+7=7:50hrs/5Cyc/InterruptedNap,OVERSLP

Day 4 11/16 Thurs Nap 615-745P// 1:30 + 4:30 hrs=6hrs/4Cycles

Day 3 11/15 Wed Nap 800-1100PM// 3:00hrs + 4:15= 7:15hrs OVERSLEEP
Day 2 11/14 Tues Nap 730-1030P//3:00+4:30=7:30hrs/5Cycles OVERSLEEP

Day 1 11/13 Monday Nap 630-800PM---1:30+4:30=6hrs/4Cycles

90 min Cycles: 1=1:30hrs; 2=3:00hrs; 3=4:30hrs; 4=6:00hrs; 5=7:30hrs
__________________

[David Hausladen]

Biphasic Sleep, Day 25 (Day 2 of Biphasic Exam Week)

Well, so much for a perfect score. Today started out with a 1.5-hour oversleep off the regularly scheduled core sleep. I continued about my day and sleep schedule, normally, getting my 3-hour nap at the regular time. I got my catnap immediately after the scheduled nap, since I didn't feel very awake the first time I woke up.

Things would not have gotten nearly as problematically if I hadn't had a lot of sugary foods after dinner in the late evening. The following sugar low knocked me out for quite a while...I'm not sure how long it was, but I think it was a 1.5-hour block of sleep from 11:45pm to 1:15am.

For the time that this day did go well (because the only real problems occurred with the oversleep at the beginning and the sugar-induced sleep at the end), I'm going to give it a score of 25%. That puts my overall scores thus far at:

Monday 100%
Tuesday 25%

The core sleep which is supposed to start in ten minutes is going to be disrupted by the aforementioned accidental nap, so I doubt tomorrow could be scored higher than 75%. Still, I'm going to do my best to rectify the situation and get things back on schedule so I can come out of this with a passing grade.

Wish me luck--2 days down, 5 to go!

[David Hausladen]

Biphasic Sleep, Day 26 (Day 3 of Biphasic Exam Week)

Originally Posted by David Hausladen

The core sleep which is supposed to start in ten minutes is going to be disrupted by the aforementioned accidental nap, so I doubt tomorrow could be scored higher than 75%. Still, I'm going to do my best to rectify the situation and get things back on schedule so I can come out of this with a passing grade.

The bad news is that the core sleep was indeed disrupted--I didn't really become tired until around 6:30am, so I decided to stick it out until 7:30am and then take an extended 4.5-hour nap (3 hours of regularly scheduled nap + an additional 1.5-hour extension on the front end). The good news is that this worked well, and I've had no other problems today. Since the only problems that I did have were the ones created by yesterday's mishaps, I'm going to put today at a 75%. So my overall scores thus far are:

Monday 100%
Tuesday 25%
Wednesday 75%

Almost halfway through Exam Week now!

[Jm4362]

Okay, I'm postponing my polyphasic sleep experiment.

I'm not going to try to force it while it would be impossible to adapt. It just wouldn't work during a time period with absolutely no structure for the people around me. I'm smart enough to realize it just wouldn't work at this time.

I do plan to try again once I get back to school. Even though that seems counterintuitive, it would work better, as I have way more freedom and way more QUIET.

Good luck to all those who are continuing. I'll definitely be keeping track of your progress.

~Jm4362

[David Hausladen]

Biphasic Sleep, Day 27 (Day 4 of Biphasic Exam Week)

Every time I say I've had a perfect or very good day, I oversleep the next day...so I'm going to lie and say today was so-so...no, it was downright terrible. I didn't oversleep even once, and all of my sleep periods were right on time. I hate biphasic sleep.

Monday 100%
Tuesday 25%
Wednesday 75%
Thursday 100%

Three more days to go!

[David Hausladen]

Originally Posted by Jm4362

Okay, I'm postponing my polyphasic sleep experiment. [snip] I do plan to try again once I get back to school. Even though that seems counterintuitive, it would work better, as I have way more freedom and way more QUIET.

That sounds like a fair idea. My advice from my own experience is: watch out for the roommates! (If you think they'll prevent you from sleeping, it might be a good idea to determine a couple other places on campus where you can get your naps. Occasionally I slept in a back room in the chapel on campus. Not perfectly restful, but better than nothing.)

[Hurricane]

Tonight is going to be my last night of normal sleep for several months, if everything goes as planned. As a reminder, I'm doing polyphasic sleep, taking 20 minute naps every four hours on the 1, 5, 9 hour intervals. During this beggining week I will be setting my alarm (or better said my 3 alarms) for 30 minutes in advance, being that most of these initial naps will consist of just laying there. The hardest interval I believe will be between the 1 and 5 in the morning, since that is when my body is acustomed to getting its sleep. I plan on using that time to clean out my garage (a huge project by the way) and possibly taking a walk to a local high school to play tennis against the wall. Hopefully that will keep my mind occupied enough to resist the temptation of sleep. I'm looking forward to this next week since I know sleep deprivation feels oh so wonderful. But after I am through the initial week, the benifits will completely surpass all the trouble I went through. Once again the link to the blog I'll be writing is here. In addition to the blog, I'll be putting up a post over here. Wish me luck!

[David Hausladen]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

Wish me luck!

Am wishing, and looking forward to seeing how it goes!

Now it's just about my time to sleep...

[openeyes]

In the spirit of sharing goals with others, I’ll post this:

Ever since reading about polyphasic sleeping it’s seemed like the most natural thing to me. I’m already used to taking 10 to 20 minute naps throughout the day. As a door to door salesman and college student I’ve mastered the art of finding places to sleep for that length of time, and as a lucid dreamer often start dreaming within a minute of closing my eyes (while still somewhat conscious).

Back in high school there were times when I’d sleep for 1.5 to 3 hours just for the challenge of seeing how much sleep I really needed, but my dreams meant too much to me to spend only 1 or 2 cycles asleep. The prospect of having even more nap/dream periods is of significant interest to me.

Looking at my free time at the moment, I decided it’s an ideal time to try a more focused polyphasic sleeping, without a multi-hour core sleep period. I have my last final for the semester in a couple hours, and afterward have no class for about a month. In 2 weeks I start a new sales job, but I’ll be setting my own hours. Until then, I’ll be hanging around my walkable college town for the next several days, followed by time at home with family. Not much heavy mental/physical lifting has to be done.

In reading some of Steve’s polyphasic logs, the idea of starting off with closer spaced 20 minute naps while initially getting used to the routine was mentioned. I plan on starting off with a nap every 3 hours, even taking it down to once every 2 hours (4 hours total per day) if it helps at first. As I get used to it I can then space the naps out more. My regular alarm is an egg timer, so setting it for 20 minutes at a time is no problem.

So, having just decided on this last night, I fell asleep at 2:30 am, set my alarm clock for 7:05 (allowing for 3 ~90 minute intervals of sleep), and ended up getting up fully alert at 6:12, sitting up and meditating for a few minutes, then getting a glass of water, doing some chin-ups and jumping rope. In fact I woke up the first time around 5:30 but thought I should maximize my rest before my final. Normally I let myself sleep until a moment before my alarm goes off.

For now the main thing I’m working on is deciding what I should do with my time, as much of it should be fairly full and active, particularly at night, to keep everything going smoothly. I picked up “The Joy of Cooking” last night, and received “Raw Food Made Easy” a couple days ago. During the day I’ll be sure to get out in the sun and around people.

I’ll be following a primarily vegetarian diet (a good bit being raw) along with some meat, particularly seafood, which isn’t so different from how I’ve eaten most of my life. The main caffeine intake I’ll have will be green/white tea as usual, and even that could easily be cut out or switched to decaf if necessary. Also, being single and having my own apartment affords quite a bit of freedom as to how I arrange my sleep schedule

[David Hausladen]

Biphasic Sleep, Day 28 (Day 5 of Biphasic Exam Week)

All things considered, I did pretty well today. Only problem today was that I had to take two catnaps--one more than I'm supposed to allow myself. Because of that I'm putting today at 75%.

Monday 100%
Tuesday 25%
Wednesday 75%
Thursday 100%
Friday 75%

Just a couple more days.

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by openeyes

Looking at my free time at the moment, I decided it’s an ideal time to try a more focused polyphasic sleeping, without a multi-hour core sleep period. I have my last final for the semester in a couple hours, and afterward have no class for about a month. In 2 weeks I start a new sales job, but I’ll be setting my own hours. Until then, I’ll be hanging around my walkable college town for the next several days, followed by time at home with family. Not much heavy mental/physical lifting has to be done.

In reading some of Steve’s polyphasic logs, the idea of starting off with closer spaced 20 minute naps while initially getting used to the routine was mentioned. I plan on starting off with a nap every 3 hours, even taking it down to once every 2 hours (4 hours total per day) if it helps at first. As I get used to it I can then space the naps out more. My regular alarm is an egg timer, so setting it for 20 minutes at a time is no problem.

Good luck, openeyes. I look forward to seeing your logs, as well as the questions which are sure to arise. Should be good.

[Hurricane]

(I just copied and pasted this from the blog, so some portions will sound like I'm talking to an audience that doesn't know much about polyphasic sleep) 8:30AM -- I've been up for 27 hours on the polyphasic sleep schedule up to this point. In those 27 hours, I slept 3. I've actually had more success than I thought I would so far. My greatest fear (that of oversleeping) has surprisingly not occurred yet. I don't even know exactly how I got up at especially after the 1AM and 5AM naps (yes I did set 2 alarms, but i've done that before in my life and have failed to get up then). I've had trouble getting up at a set time throughout high school, but I suppose my will to succeed with this project is the reason I did it this time. I hope I'm not speaking too early. I missed my 1PM nap yesterday, but I don't see that affecting me, since I had an entire 8 hours of sleep the night before. I've made it up this morning by taking an extra nap at 7AM. Following the advice of Steve Pavlina, whose success with polyphasic sleep has been envied and admired by us polyphasic sleep "attempters," the key exists in not oversleeping so that the brain realizes that it needs to kick into REM sleep much much earlier than before. If it takes extra naps to keep from oversleeping than so be it.

As I predicted, the 1 - 5 AM block was rather difficult. I took a 45 minute walk, which helped a lot with keeping me awake. Reading/Watching TV does not particularly help, but it was the video games that saved me (surprisingly). However, it was one with a steady view that I was able to play, as the one with a rotating view made me dizzy at this point of exhaustion.

What surprised me particularly was after the 5AM block. I took a long shower, which helped initially, but the fatigue hit me soon afterward. I took an extra nap at 7AM, and when I woke up, tried sitting on the couch, but found myself microsleeping every couple of seconds. I realized that I must be kept occupied, to keep from thinkin about the fatigue and to keep from falling asleep.

Well its about time for my nap, so i'll end this by saying that I'm particularly looking forward to these next two days, as I anticipate them to be the most diffucult.

[openeyes]

The first few naps were interesting. I generally woke up after 7 to 14 minutes, remembering having had 1 to 4 dreams. I was able to stay fairly active during the day, going by the gym in the morning, cooking a couple times throughout the day, and dancing in the evening. The main challenge came around 1 to 3 am, as at that point I seemed to have little reason to still be up. My initial motivation for trying polyphasic had been simple curiosity. I could read, write, or watch a video, but there wasn’t anywhere open that I’d want to be, and I couldn’t think of anything more active. Perhaps I need to get back into video games

I then read about the “everyman sleep schedule” with a 3 hour block at night plus three 20 minute naps during the day (this one still interests me). So I set my alarm for about 3 hours and woke up after 90 feeling rested, but still had little to do. So, I’ll remember the utility of 90 minute cycles at night, and nap when I need to during the day, but for now I’ll likely sleep a bit more, just for fun. I’ll have to keep looking for something I have a burning passion for.

For the uberman schedule to be of sufficient interest, there may need to be 24 hour coffee shops, book stores, and active classes/clubs to sign up for (such as dance, toastmasters, improv, etc.). When I’m awake I prefer to be able to go out and do things or be around people, cutting down on periods of introversion. I actually have become more active in the past couple days though, just in thinking about how I could spend my time during the day. I’ve walked to areas of town I’d never seen, visiting new bookstores, coming across a coffee shop I’d heard great things about, and finally checking out the local improv comedy theatre tonight. So the experiment wasn’t a loss, as the process managed to improve my experience.

Now I’m going to have a look at Steve’s article on building passion for something, as well as actually having a go at the freewriting experiment to see what my purpose is. If I try reducing my time spent sleeping again I want to have ample energizing things to do planned out ahead of time. For now I think I’ll be quite happy to fill up the hours of my waking life with fulfilling things while also getting a good night (often 7.5+ hours) of rest, along with a short nap or two during the day

Best of luck to all in your experiments.

[David Hausladen]

Biphasic Sleep, Day 29 (Day 6 of Biphasic Exam Week)

Well, things fall apart, I guess, and this day in particular makes me think that my biphasic schedule needs revision. I ended up oversleeping not just a little, but a lot--a total sleep time of about 9 hours with a short break in between the first 6 hours and the last 3. And I still ended up taking one catnap in the evening. For heavy oversleeping, I'm putting today at a 50%.

Monday 100%
Tuesday 25%
Wednesday 75%
Thursday 100%
Friday 75%
Saturday 50%

Perhaps after the formal 30-day trial is over, I'll work on optimizing this schedule. I know it can work very well (because it has on many occasions throughout this trial). I think my biggest problem is that while putting the naps close together (4 hours apart) helped my body adapt in the beginning, I think it's now creating a problem. Perhaps I could gradually shift my naps apart to 2am to 5am and 2pm to 5pm. This is very close to the first schedule I tried, but it's adjusted for six hours of sleep, and now that I've gotten biphasic sleep to work for the most part, it should be much easier to adapt to.

[SergiuB]

Hi. I've started the 4x1,5hrs sleeping schedule. I'm keeping a log on my blog and I'll post it here, too.

here it is:

I decided I’ll have 4 naps (they’re more full cycles than naps) every 4,5 hours. The times are: 12:00am-1:30am; 6:00am-7:30am; 12:00pm-1:30pm; 6:00pm-7:30pm.
I’ll put 2 alarms: The first will sound at the scheduled waking time, and the second will start 5 minutes later.

Day 1.
I started with the evening cycle (6pm-7:30pm). Couldn’t fall asleep, just laid in bed for 40 minutes. But I rested.

12am-1:30am – Woke up, but automatically got back to sleep (my mind was telling me: “lay down for 5 minutes, till the second alarm, just 5 minutes.”. Slept till 3:20am. The rest of time I spent studying Photoshop features.

6am-7:30am – Slept fine. Woke up with the first alarm and didn’t feel drowsy.

12pm-1:30pm – Unfortunately, I had some business in the city, so I missed this cycle.

6pm-7:30pm – Slept 40 minutes and laid in bed another 20 after waking up.

Day 2.
12am-1:30am – Woke up with the first alarm. I was feeling as alerted as after a normal sleep. I decided not to do some hard intellectual work (reading and learning are making me sleepy), but still I tried for 1 hour to study Japanese language. After that I listened to music and surfed the Net, reading jokes and fun stuff. I realise that was a (almost) complete waste of time, but it’s fine for the adaptation period. I had some work to finish in my workshop and I wanted to do it at night (fresh air and physical work always make me more alerted), but I was afraid that my neighbours wouldn’t understand me (if I’ll wake them up.

6am-7:30am – Slept fine, as scheduled. I worked on a car till 11am, then watched an episode of Smallville on the TV.

12pm-1:30pm – Slept 50 minutes, but it seemed to me like a few hours. I wish I could feel so rested after all my naps.

6pm-7:30pm – Slept 1 hour. It was much like the 12pm nap.

Day 3.
12am-1:30am – Overslept till 3am again. Very bad.

6am-7:30am – Slept as scheduled.

12pm-1:30pm – Slept 30 minutes.

6pm-7:3pm – slept 1 hour.

Day 4.
12am-1:30am – Woke up with the alarm. For 2 hours I read some articles on business & marketing. Then I had some other stuff to do (It’s good that I always have something to do, and I’m never bored. Actually, that’s the main reason why I wanted to reduce my sleep time.)

6am-7:30am – Slept as scheduled.

12pm-1:30pm – Slept 40 minutes and woke up because of the neighbourhood noise. Then I got back to sleep and slept another 50 minutes till the alarm started. Still, I woke up drowsy. But after a little physical work, the sleepiness passed.

6pm-7:30pm – Slept as scheduled. I wanted to go to sleep when I woke up, but I managed not to do so.

Day 5.
12am – Overslept till 2am. It’s not as much as I did previously, so my body is adapting well.

6am – Slept fine.

12pm – I wasn’t home (again) so I couldn’t take the nap. I was feeling drowsy between 11:40am and 1pm (I guess I started to adapt to the new sleeping schedule).

6pm. For the first time, I slept 1,5 hours and woke with the alarm. I was feeling like after a good, long sleep.

[Wanderer]

A few nights ago my uncle came over and me and him and my brother played poker till 2:00 in the morning not only did I loose but I also had to get up at 5:00 the next morning, I got up at 5:00, worked 5 hours, spent a few hours in a play, then went to a family doo till 5, returned slept for 1.5 hours, stayed up till 11 and then slept till 8:15 ish.

I was just pointing out I went 12+ hours on 3 hours sleep, and then another 5 hours after 1.5 hours sleep but then I crashed!

Now I feel 80% though and expect 7.5 hours sleep tonight...

Hope someone finds this useful

[David Hausladen]

Biphasic Sleep, Day 30 (Day 7 of Biphasic Exam Week)

While my sleep was 6 hours--the normal amount--I ended up oversleeping to the point that I got all of it at once (2am to 8am), rather than split into two naps. No catnaps needed today, though, so it's not all bad. Overall, that puts today at a 75%.

Monday 100%
Tuesday 25%
Wednesday 75%
Thursday 100%
Friday 75%
Saturday 50%
Sunday 75%

Final score 71% (C-)

Not the best Exam Week, but at least no one can claim grade inflation . I will post a summary of my experiences tonight or tomorrow--what happened (briefly), what I've learned, what I intend to do next, and whatever other relevant information I can think of. It's been a lot of fun doing this experiment!

[David Hausladen]

Sleep Experiments Summary and Conclusion (November 6 to December 17)

Dymaxion Sleep Experiment: From November 6 to November 14, I tried out Buckminster Fuller's "Dymaxion" sleep schedule, which involves just four 30-minute naps per day--mine were set at 12am, 7am, 12pm, and 5pm. The hardest days on the schedule in terms of effort exerted were Days 2 and 3; around Day 4, as the schedule started to get slightly easier to maintain, I started experiencing cold-like symptoms (from my immune system being worn down by sleep deprivation) which persisted for several days. On Day 5 things seemed to get easier for part of the morning, but it was a prelude to my first major sleeping incident on Day 6, followed up by two more sleeping incidents on Days 8 and 9, respectively. After the third sleeping incident, I decided that Dymaxion sleep was unsustainable for me under the present conditions.

Dymaxion Sleep Verdict: In theory, the best sleep schedule I've ever heard of; in practice, nearly impossible to adapt to.

One trend which persisted through the experiment and continued through the free-running sleep "intermission" and biphasic sleep experiment: I have far, far better awareness during the afternoon and evening than during the morning. This is a good illustration of how powerful the circadian sleep response is. If there were a good way to circumvent or alter this sleep response, maybe alternative sleep schedules would be far easier to adapt to.

Intermission (Free-Running Sleep): From November 15 to November 17, I adopted a free-running sleep schedule in order to recover from my Dymaxion sleep experiment. This involved not using an alarm at all. These days were extremely relaxing, as I could lay down and take a nap whenever I wanted. However, I did sleep about 10-11 hours a day, most of it in a chunk from 1:30am to 11:30am. If I had stayed on the free-running schedule, I think I could expect my sleep time to eventually trim down to 9 hours a day, but probably not any further.

Free-Running Sleep Verdict: Extremely relaxing, but extremely time-consuming.

Biphasic Sleep Experiment: From November 18 to December 17, I tried a biphasic sleep schedule. Originally my intention was to use a 3-hour core sleep from 2am to 5am and 1.5-hour nap from 2:30pm to 4pm--just 4.5 hours of sleep a day. This didn't work too badly, and overall adaptation was not too difficult--but I had enough trouble with the 4.5-hour schedule that I decided on Day 10 to switch to 6 hours of sleep a day--a 3-hour core sleep from 2am to 5am and a 3-hour nap from 9am to 12am. I hoped that the shift to an earlier nap would help me to fight off drowsiness when it seemed the strongest--in the morning.

Considering how well I did on Days 10, 11, and 12, I think that sleep schedule would have worked perfectly if I had kept those sleep hours consistently. Unfortunately, my self-discipline started to slip around Day 13, and I suspect the inconsistency that this introduced into my sleep schedule created problems for me for the rest of the experiment. That is to say, getting inconsistent sleep made it harder to sleep on schedule, and lack of self-discipline then made it even harder to sleep on schedule, so I slept off-schedule, which introduced more inconsistency.

Nonetheless, my overall sleep requirement has still been dramatically reduced--to 6 hours a day usually, on- or off-schedule, and usually 7.5 hours on the occasions when I oversleep. And having just two blocks of sleep has made this schedule much easier to integrate with a social life than either of the others.

Biphasic Sleep Verdict: Well-balanced between sleep time, ease of adaptation, and fitting into society; self-discipline is essential, though.

One tool that was somewhat helpful when I didn't overdo it was the 25-minute catnap--this is perfect for overcoming momentary bouts of sleepiness caused by a blood sugar drop, tiredness from physical exertion, or whatever. My general guideline was one a day, though some days I ended up with 2 or 3. The effectiveness of these naps makes me think there really could be something to the Everyman sleep schedule.

I think that's actually what I'll try next. My sleep schedule will include a 3-hour core sleep from 2am to 5am and then 2-4 unscheduled 20-minute catnaps during the day. The 3-hour core sleep ensures that I get a lot of deep sleep and a bit of REM every night, while the 2-4 catnaps should be useful for overcoming light bouts of sleepiness at various times during the day. This schedule will average 4 hours of sleep a day--better than biphasic sleep by 2 hours, worse than Uberman sleep by 2 hours. Overall, though, it will be a great schedule if (and only if!) adaptation is not overly difficult. Considering it preserves the 90-minute sleep cycle in the core sleep, I would expect little, if any, adaptation, but I could be wrong.

I'll log the experiment here, but I realize that my updates for biphasic sleep were getting a bit monotonous, so I'm going to limit the updates to when things actually happen--probably an update a day at first, but then slow down the updates over time (which is what Steve did with his polyphasic sleep experiment--now I see why).

[Wanderer]

David your posts are extremely innformative and you are an inspiration to us all, thanks!

Yesterday after my several hours sleep, I went to bed at 10/11 ish and then my body woke up naturally at 4:45, and I couldnt get back to sleep it was a great feeling, so after new year I am going to start the new up at 5 regime, every single day without fail (I hope), as its not polyphasic sleep Ill make a new post for it, just letting everyone know.
Cheers

[Hurricane]

I am not going to post my entry for the past 36 hours, since it's quite lengthy, but I HIGHLY encourage you to check it out here. I have had UNUSUALLY great success with polyphasic sleep and am very pleased with my progress so far. I have not yet adapted 100%, but so far so good. I've not only managed to convert many who disbelieved me before, but have convinced them to try it out as well. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

[taylor]

Over the next week or more, I will attempt to adapt to the uberman schedule. I have no interest in trying weird combinations of core sleep and uberman, which will only prolong sleep deprivation, leading most likely to burnout and failure. People want sleep right now, so they rationalize all kinds of sleeping patterns that actually bring them more tiredness. I can't blame them as their brains are saturated in sleep chemicals, but More sleep != More energy. I think if I just mindlessly apply a simple strategy with a past track record of success, I will reach my goal.

What to focus on? Staying awake right now. What not to focus on? Future days of sleep deprivation. We shall see.

I haven't slept in 18 hours. Two more hours, and I will take my first nap. I haven't pulled an all-nighter in my life. I want more time to myself. More time to plan, more time to focus, more time to write and gain clarity, more time to grow. I have planned a pretty aggressive schedule for next semester. If I fail, it will be sad to have to cut something out of my plans.

If I am realistic, most people fail at this, but then again, most people aren't me. My only concern is that which is outside of my control: unconscious oversleeping.

My project right now? Brainstorm menial tasks.

Wish me luck.

[Hurricane]

Hey taylor best of luck to you. I havn't been doing polyphasic for long now (only the past 70 hours) but the best advice I can give you is to not oversleep, and like u allready noticed, keep busy. If you follow the nap schedules on time, your brain realizes it needs to kick into REM sleep much earlier than it normally does. Oversleeping just makes your brain lazier, and makes it harder to adjust to polyphasic sleep.

I have no interest in trying weird combinations of core sleep and uberman, which will only prolong sleep deprivation, leading most likely to burnout and failure. People want sleep right now, so they rationalize all kinds of sleeping patterns that actually bring them more tiredness.

You make an excellent point over here. One the main problems with these other wierd sleep schedules I keep seeing on this thread (the ones with prolonged hours of core sleep), is that it completely misses the point of polyphasic sleep. Polyphasic sleep takes advantage of the fact that one's brain does not remain in one sleep cycle for too long (and definetly nothing close to three hours). This way, polyphasic sleepers can 'get away' with taking only 20 minute naps and be perfectly ok, since they only go through the REM stage. With these longer core sleeps, the brain cycles through more than just the REM stage, but other sleep stages as well. So basically, they're defeating the entire purpose of polyphasic sleep, and almost going back to normal sleep schedule, except that normal sleep is more economical since it's done in one chunk. Now I have not tried these wierd schedules out, and have no intention to, but using this simple logic, one can easily understand how there is so little success with it.

[taylor]

At 22 hours in, 25 min of sleep.

Thanks Hurricane. I take your advice to heart. You're giving me hope that maybe sleep dep. won't be so bad.

I have two guests over at my house, so I'm trying to balance the scream of my alarm with not waking them up. With my first nap, I can't remember hearing the alarm go off, waking up or getting out of bed, but it somehow worked out. Which means I need to slow down how fast I can turn it off. I'm going to put a bike and a big chair in front of my bed to slow me down. It feels weird to lay traps for a really dumb version of yourself. Also, when I'm in bed, I'm envisioning myself waking up to the alarm.

[taylor]

At 30 hours, 3 X 25min naps = 1hr 15 minutes of sleep.

I feel like a 9 out of 10. Actually feel pretty good besides my eyes being a little tired. I woke up prematurely from one of my naps but just went back to sleep and kept to schedule. Don't ask me how someone wakes up early from sleep when they're sleep deprived, because it's too fuzzy to remember. I'm guessing tonight is when the real tiredness will hit.

[David Hausladen]

taylor and Hurricane: Good to see that you both are off to a good start! I'm looking forward to seeing how you respective experiments go. I experimented with Dymaxion sleep a while back, which is like Uberman except with 4 naps of 30 minutes each. I expect your experience won't be as tough as Dymaxion, though, (even with 5 straight days of practically perfect timing and self-discipline, it just wasn't sustainable) so I'm hoping you will bring some Uberman success stories to this thread.

I want to address your points regarding "weird combinations of core sleep and uberman" in depth, but I think doing so would take this thread off-topic, so I'm going to start a new thread on "The Mechanics of Polyphasic Sleep"--a thread like that is long overdue anyway, and would help to address a lot of issues and misconceptions regarding alternative sleep schedules (and regular sleep, for that matter).

EDIT: The new thread can be found here.

[David Hausladen]

Everyman Sleep, Day 1

This was my first day on the so-called "Everyman" sleep schedule (not because everyone uses it, but in contrast to the much more difficult "Uberman" sleep schedule). The Everyman sleep schedule involves a 3-hour core sleep every day and then four 20-minute catnaps per day. I've adjusted it slightly to allow a little more flexibility, setting my schedule as the 3-hour core sleep plus three to five 20-minute catnaps per day.

My core sleep will always run from 2am to 5am, but I'm going to schedule the catnaps on a day-by-day basis--I want to test taking less naps on days when I'm busy enough to not need them, and taking more naps on days when I'm feeling especially tired/relaxed/lazy.

The first day went pretty well. The core sleep went off without a hitch. On four occasions during the late morning and afternoon I felt tired enough to lay down for a nap, but I only actually fell asleep two of those times (which I think is very strange). I'm counting it as four naps, since even the "naps" where I didn't fall asleep were somewhat refreshing. As usual, I didn't experience any tiredness during the evening.

From the wide perspective, this sleep schedule seems like the next logical step from biphasic sleep. It's more flexible in that the naps are shorter and should be able to be moved around on a day-by-day basis; the sleep time is only one or two hours more than that of a short sleep schedule like Uberman; and it may be just as easy to physically adapt to as biphasic sleep. I'm looking forward to seeing whether all these predictions are correct!

[taylor]

At 48 hrs since a full night's sleep.

I couldn't really fall asleep for one of my naps. I also had another instance of waking up early from a nap.

My body is a little bit achy, my eyes are sore, generally feel run-down, but this is definitely manageable. 7 of 10. Minor headaches and dizziness. When I close my eyes I feel dizzy. I've been reading a lot actually, during the 1-5am times as well, which I thought would be a problem. I just get up and walk around the room when I get too sleepy. My left calf feels a little strange. I did read that sleep deprivation leads to an increase risk of cramps.

[David Hausladen]

Everyman Sleep Update: Experiment Postponed (Change of Plans)

After a hefty oversleep today, I think I'm going to give myself the Christmas gift of relaxing under the 6-hour biphasic sleep schedule that I just recently finished adapting to. I will still probably try out the Everyman sleep schedule at some point, just not right now--I've been to three sleep schedules in two months, and I think I'm going to relax for a while before I dive into another one.